Charity Refugee Film Festival

Event Highlights: The 11th Charity Refugee Film Festival

See it from the inside. Knowledge is power for positive changes. Understand the plight of refugee from powerful stories well told.

Since 2007, UNHCR has held the Refugee Film Festival (RFF) in Hong Kong for eleven years. RFF, also hosted in places like Japan, Australia and South Korea, seeks to raise awareness about the plight of refugees and to mobilize support for people who have been forced to flee their homes.

As the refugee crisis captures headlines globally, UNHCR believes that film is a powerful medium to touch the hearts and minds of the audience, and will help people look at refugees in a new way.

The 11th Charity Refugee Film Festival

The 2-week film festival was successfully held in June 2018. All proceeds will support UNHCR’s Nobody Left Outside global campaign. It calls on the private sector to contribute funds for shelter solutions for 2 million refugees around the world.

Four moving stories were presented over the course of the Refugee Film Festival, beginning with the screening of After Spring directed by Ellen Martinez and Hong Kong-born Steph Ching. Born in Syria, which is about refugee children moving across Europe, was also screened at the film festival. Elsewhere, Warehoused explores the plight of long-standing refugees by looking into the lives of those living in the world’s second-largest refugee camp, Kenya’s Dadaab camp run by UNHCR. The Refugee Film Festival closed with The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe, an uplifting tale of four African-Australian women, all former refugees and victims of sexual abuse and violence, who take on the risky challenge of creating and performing their stories in a professional theatre production.

The opening premiere was supported by Members of UNHCR Global Shelter Coalition including Mr. Shih Wing Ching, Founder of Shih Wing Ching Foundation, as well as celebrities Ms. Joey Wong and Mr. BabyJohn Choi. Guests at the premiere urged general public of Hong Kong to support the Refugee Film Festival in order to better understand the plight of people around the world who have been forced from their homes.

JW (left) and BabyJohn Choi (right) hope movies can bring people closer to the refugee crisis.

Mr. Sivanka Dhanapala, UNHCR Representative in China (left) thanks Mr. Shih to attend the premiere of the Refugee Film Festival.

RFF ended on 20 Jun, the World Refugee Day. Ms. Ros Horin, the director of The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe, participated in a sharing session after the closing screening. She shared the stories behind the scenes, as well as the ups and downs of the ladies’ theatre journey with the audiences. The director and the audience enjoyed an enthusiastic discussion about movie production, feminism and sexual violence.

Be Part of the Refugee Film Festival

You can show your care to refugees and support to our works by being our corporate sponsors, helding private screenings at your private events or schools.

“R-Connect” Community Engagement Program

We are also keen to engage with the young generation and community groups, and offer special packages including tailored screening activity, co-organize public engagement activity or fundraising initiative as part of our “R-Connect” Community Engagement Program.